‘The Flash’ Recap: “Magenta” – It’s Quick!

Doctor Alchemy struck again with another Flashpoint metahuman, “Magenta,” on the third episode of The Flash‘s third season. Unlike The Rival, this foe was underwhelming and felt contrived as a means to the end of revealing tidbits about the mastermind and setting up future episodes. Of more interest was the return of Harry and Jesse, Wally’s obsession with regaining his Flashpoint speed, and to a lesser extent, Barry and Iris’s dating challenges.

Why is it that superheroes are never allowed to go a on an uninterrupted date? Not Supergirl, not Arrow, and now not even The Flash. They find time to sleep, right? Barry can’t stop every crime that happens every minute of every day, so why can’t he go off the clock for an hour for a nice dinner with Iris?

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Even if dinner was interrupted, Barry started off the night right with the over-the-top flower arrangement. While he couldn’t stay for dinner, he did have Iris in his mind and heart. Leaving to stop a robbery was cringeworthy, though the breach at Star Labs certainly was an acceptable excuse. At least since Iris is part of Team Flash, Barry’s not lying to her and she understands the stakes. I still wish The Flash had gone in an original direction with their first date.

Speaking of the breach, welcome back to Harry and Jesse! While Flashpoint changed the timeline on Earth-1, it didn’t affect Earth-2 at all. They returned to Team Flash without any knowledge that they were heading into an altered timeline and changed place. (This would mean that the timeline on Supergirl has remained unaltered as well.) Even though their timeline remained intact, Jesse’s a speedster now.

Jesse, the speedster, was salt in the wound to Wally. He may not remember being a speedster during Flashpoint, but the knowledge that a version of himself had speed sparked an irrational desire within him. How far will he go to become a speedster? He stepped in front of a truck in the hopes the power would awaken in him. What’s next?

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Magenta’s story wasn’t that compelling on its own, though it likely set the stage for Wally becoming a speedster. How long before he goes to Doctor Alchemy to have his Flashpoint powers activated? Barry was rash spontaneously when he changed the timeline to save his mother, but Wally is impulsive to his core. This doesn’t bode well for his future. He is a danger to himself and to Team Flash.

Another problem that Barry and his team are going to face is from Julian. Who is he? Why is he in this timeline? And how much does he really know? It’s entirely understandable that Julian doesn’t trust Barry, but the suspicion is over the top. The way Julian questioned whether Barry had heard of “Alchemy” before was suspect. As a metahuman expert and new addition in this timeline, the speculation that Julian is Alchemy isn’t outrageous, though it would be fairly predictable. It also would be yet another time an insider is the villain and feel like a repeat of Reverse Flash and Zoom.

Overall, this hour moved the overarching story forward, but was underwhelming on the whole. It was awesome to have Harry and Jesse rejoin the team. Barry could use speedster help handling the metahuman troubles in Central City and her appearance will push Wally to his limits. Magenta wasn’t a compelling villain and only served to help reveal Doctor Alchemy’s methods.

Review: ★★★ Good

Miscellanea:

Image via The CW

Cisco: “Doctor Alchemy is a magic man in a cloak who can somehow restore the powers that people had in ‘Flashpoint.’”